Anselmo grew up in the inner city of New Orleans. He attended Grace King High School located in Metairie. His father owns and operates a restaurant in Metairie, LA called Anselmo's. Anselmo has a younger brother, Jerry Anselmo and a half-sister, Mary Colclough who was credited as a backup singer on the Southern Isolation EP. Anselmo has a pet rottweiler named Dracula

Anselmo has said in various interviews that he was very quiet and secluded as a child. He spent some time working on fishing boats as a young man. During a 2002 Ozzfest interview with radio show Opie and Anthony, Anselmo shared a story that, at the age of 14, he started a fire in his home to scare his sister but accidentally burned the house down in the process.

While a teenager Anselmo joined the band Samhain, not to be confused with Glenn Danzig's band of the same name. From the early to mid 80s, Anselmo was a member of the band 'Razor White'. While they did have some original material, they mainly played Judas Priest covers.